This State Is Offering 50% Discount On Unpaid Traffic Fines

Karnataka has announced a 50 percent discount on all pending traffic e challans and Road Transport Office cases, valid from November 21 to December 12, 2025. This is the fifth time the state government has offered such relief to push vehicle owners to clear long overdue fines.

The discount covers violations recorded between fiscal years 1991–92 and 2019–20 and applies to more than four lakh pending cases across the state. It includes penalties from police issued e challans and cases booked by Regional Transport Offices under departmental statutory action. Routine offences such as speeding, signal jumping and wrong parking are covered, along with documentation and registration related issues like expired insurance, invalid permits and unauthorised modifications.

Pending vehicle tax dues are not included in the scheme and must still be paid in full.

How and where motorists can pay

Motorists can clear their discounted dues through multiple online and offline channels. Payments can be made via the Karnataka State Police app, the BTP ASTraM app and the Karnataka One and Bangalore One portals. Offline options include Karnataka One centres, designated traffic police stations, Transport Department offices and the Traffic Management Centre on Infantry Road in Bengaluru.

This wide network of payment options is a response to problems seen in previous drives, where servers slowed down or crashed in the last few days as people rushed to pay. Authorities are advising residents to check their pending challans early and complete payments well before December 12 to avoid last minute congestion on digital platforms and at physical counters.

Transport officials say that most of the backlog involves commercial vehicles such as taxis, auto rickshaws and goods carriers. Many of these operators have accumulated multiple challans over the years and have delayed payment because of tight margins and other running costs. Private vehicle owners account for a smaller share of the pending cases.

Why the government is offering this discount

The four lakh pending cases represent a sizeable pool of uncollected revenue for the state. Conservative estimates put outstanding penalties at around ₹200 crore to ₹300 crore before the 50 percent rebate. Even if only half is recovered during this window, the government could still collect ₹100 crore to ₹150 crore while cleaning up old records.

Clearing legacy cases helps enforcement agencies focus on current violations instead of carrying forward decades old entries that have a low chance of ever being paid in full. From the administration’s point of view, some money collected now is better than keeping large unpaid balances on the books indefinitely.

Critics of repeated schemes argue that frequent discounts encourage violators to delay payment in the hope of future amnesty windows. The fact that this is the fifth such offer strengthens that argument, as some motorists now expect that waiting long enough will bring another 50 percent cut.

Officials counter that many of these fines are so old that full recovery is unlikely. Tracking and managing them still consumes time and resources, even though the practical chance of collection is low. In that context, accepting half the amount and closing the file is seen as a realistic compromise.

What happens after December 12

Once the discount period ends on December 12, full fines will technically be payable again on all uncleared cases. However, the exact enforcement plan is not fully detailed. Without strict links between fine clearance and routine processes such as vehicle registration renewal, fitness certificates, permit renewals, licence renewals or ownership transfers, many violators may continue to ignore their dues as they have done in the past.

The deadline is meant to create urgency and nudge people who have been postponing payments for years. Past experience suggests that many will still wait until the final days, risking server overloads and failed transactions.

How effective this latest 50 percent discount proves to be will depend on three factors: how many motorists actually use the window, whether the state follows it up with tighter links between fines and vehicle related services, and whether future governments resist the temptation to announce yet another round of discounts that resets expectations all over again.